Men of AJATT, on to glory! See Surusu famed in story! Waves these burning words before ye: “Britain scorns to yield!”.

Hmmm…and on that note.

Surusu now supports import of decks from Anki. Current limitations:

• Only Anki “cards“ (not “facts”) exported in the form of tab-separated text file, are supported.
• As you might expect, repetition history is not imported. However, Surusu does have facilities such as the warp button, whereby you can set very long intervals in a single click, allowing you to basically say: “I know this card very well, don’t show it to me for a long while”. This keeps well-memorized cards out of your hair so that you can spend more of your time on the cards you know less well.

In other news:

• Surusu now also supports rudimentary “undo” of repetition scores. If you accidentally give the card the wrong score, simply click on the link to its data page (shown at the top of the current page together with interval information), and “reset” it.
• Surusu decks can now be deleted and merged as well as renamed. However, delete and merge are irreversible, one-time operations, so use them with care. At present, there is no deck trashcan, i.e. no undo for deck mergers and deletions.

Let it be known throughout the land. Surusu now comes with the ability to rename decks! Just visit the bottom of the “decks” page to give your old decks nicer names

ちわーっす！Surusu users united can never be defeated.

Um…There’s a new feature up, accessible when you view the back (“answer”) side of your cards and are scoring your performance. It’s a button labeled “|DAILY|”.

Basically, what this button does is bypass normal interval processing, forcing your card to appear the next “day”, regardless of its previous performance (note: this is subject to some minor variation due to Surusu’s priority scheduling). This daily repetition function is useful if, say, you’re wanting to really brainwash yourself with some idea, and you’d like to exposed to it on a daily basis.

That’s it .

While Surusu’s automated card rescheduling and salami-slicing (essentially, showing you only N number of cards at a time) is one of its strengths, sometimes you do want to do a ton of reps uninterrupted.

So, by popular demand, I have added a new feauture dubbed “autofeed cards”. Basically it causes Surusu to keep “feeding” you cards without your constant intervention (no being taken back to the home screen every N cards). Rather like a, uh, an automatic firearm. There’s a friendly image for you .

And that’s it for now! Thanks for using Surusu!

After a lot of tiny Surusu updates comes a big ‘un. A long awaited feature is here at last: decks. The semantics are the same as for a physical deck of cards, in that a card belongs to one and only one deck, but can be moved freely between them. Now, you can:

• Combine/import your other accounts as decks, into a single account
• Create decks
• Move cards between decks
• View deck-specific stats
• Do deck-specific reps
• Cure cancer, AIDS and athlete’s foot
  
• Be happy

Note that in order to fully enable decks in your account, you may need to log out and then log in again. The ability to rename decks shall be added in a future update . For now, enjoy! All you beautiful Surusuers, keep your comments and suggestions coming using the Surusu hotline.

Other new, hip major features:

• PC/cellphone browser detection (cleaner redirects for PCs, linked redirects for cellphones)
• Background processing (asynchronous data-handling, allowing Surusu to give you a fast interface even as the amount of data being worked with increases).
• An improved repetition scheduling algorithm with more randomization and wider mix selection. Basically, your cards are shuffled more and they’re chosen in a way that further improves performance in terms of coverage breadth/depth.
• Decimation. “Trash bad cards” moves egregiously poor-performing cards to the trashcan, up to a maximum of 1% of a given deck’s cardcount.

Thank you for using Surusu.

As you may be aware, Surusu has up until now had periodic 15~20-minute service interruptions while backups are taken.

Wanting to eliminate the need to interrupt service in order to take a backup, today I started working with a “live backup” solution.

Unfortunately and quite ironically, this “live backup” solution led to the loss of the very user data — yours and mine — that it was intended to protect.

Fortunately, I had taken a full, “normal” backup just one week ago.
It has become necessary to restore this week-old backup.
As a result, one week’s worth of entered cards [anything entered between September 12 and September 20 (Japan time)] have been lost, and may not be recoverable. Repetition data has also been reset to September 12 status, although this does not represent a significant problem since it will just mean extra review.

Your time and data are valuable.
I apologize deeply for the inconvenience.
I shall continue to work to find stable, sustainable ways to ensure the integrity of the system.
For now, that may mean the occasional 15~20 minute service interruption while a very pedestrian backup is taken.

The Good News

The Surusu interface has been updated extensively for even more pleasant use. There have also been dozens of back-end fixes. Notably, the sporadic problem with “Extra Reps” processing not going through, has been repaired.

Thank you again for using Surusu.

Best regards,

Khatzumoto

[P.S.]: Will This Sort of Thing Happen Again?

No.

This was the first Surusu data loss incident of any kind in all its nearly 4 years of operation. And the fault was ultimately human error — mine. At the time, I was in a rush to get cool new stuff working “invisibly”, with minimum inconvenience to everyone else.

The webhost/server is one of the best out there…the database system is stable…the programmer was in too much of a hurry . A deliberate pace and simple safety checks, as has been the usual policy, can and will prevent all loss of this kind.

The immediate short-term direction is more frequent backups. Beyond that, adding functionality so we can all download and back-up our data locally is a high priority, something I want to add as soon as possible.

So, both as a user and a programmer…I’ll do my very best and more. Your concern is completely warranted, and I feel your pain — my data, all 25000 odd cards and  nearly 100000 reps — are in there, too .

Deepest apologies again for the inconvenience .

You may have noticed a slowdown in Surusu service yesterday and today. That’s because a full database backup was (and is) in progress. Things will be back to normal in a few minutes.

And it came to pass that Surusu pursued after improved functionality, and it did add and improve many features, and it did pwn both n00bs and hax0rs, and it was good.

New in this update:

• Rep speed: Speed when doing repetitions has been increased by shortening/contracting messages, reducing the number of page transitions and removing unnecessary data — to name but a few of the improvements. But a few.
• Import items fix: During the transition from KhatzuMemo to Surusu, the ability to import items was…anyway, it’s fixed now.
• Retain data: The “retain data” option now has a “memory”.
• Other minor changes: Et cetera!

Yea, verily, there went a love of Surusu throughout all the Internet…

Feedback, questions, comments, problems = always_welcome. Please use the following email address: help at surusu dot com

Boooriqua, Mooorena! Surusu (formerly known as KhatzuMemo) has been updated! This is bigger than that time you accidentally saw your friend’s Mum naked: Wow, Timothy’s Mom, I certainly never intended to open the bathroom door at such an inopportune time! And my, what unappreciated beauty!

New features:

• Multimedia capability/audio and image support: Chief among the upgrades is the ability to attach images and audio clips of [currently] up to 100KB each in size, to your cards.
• More repetition randomization to make for a more robust test of memory.
• Button Size: On the user interface front, more frequently used buttons have been increased in size, to simplify navigation. During reps, higher score buttons are also of larger size.
• DB Upgrade: As previously mentioned, the database behind Surusu has been updated in order to offer more speed and robustness. Lots of robustness today.
• HTML tag restrictions in: with the addition of multimedia capability, there is less need for HTML tags, so these have been restricted for safety. Simple tags such as <a>, <em> and other minor formatting tags are still allowed. <img> tags have been temporarily disabled due to conflict with automatic linkification.
• Q/A restrictions out: empty answer sections and question-answer equality are now allowed.
• Recycle Bin: items in the recycle bin are now displayed in order of most recent deletion.
• Lowered daily rep cap: one of the features that has made KhatzuMemo/Surusu unique is its rescheduling algorithm’s built-in repetition-capping. That cap has now been lowered from 100 to 50 reps, further lowering the “pyschological barrier” of entry, thus ironically causing one to do more reps due to lowered expectations. As before, more reps can be done using the “Extra Reps” option that appears after the day’s “required” reps are complete.
• More stats: you can now view rep statistics for the current day in addition to other longer-term data.
• Various other tweaks and simplifications both on the front and back ends.
• And cetera!

That’s basically it for now. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or problems please feel free to let me know; I would be happy to solve the ones that I can. There is still plenty of room for improvement so, your opinions are always appreciated.

Surusu stands for “Super Uber Ridiculously Useful SRS Utility”! Originally, my Mum had suggested the name be “Stupid Useless Ridiculously Unimpressive Software Utility”, but after much pondering, she finally changed her mind, explaining that: “I wouldn’t want to insult Windows ME by dignifying this piece of s[oftware] with the name ’software’. Also, you’re adopted.”

Anyway, really, it’s just the word “SRS” distorted to sound like a simple-to-spell word that’s pronouncable in any five-vowel language, with a repeating syllable that carries profound autological significance.

And now, Surusu is the new name of the SRS formerly known as KhatzuMemo. Finally, a URL you can actually type into a browser from memory! So tell all your friends: “y’all needs to gets you some Surusu, dawg, ya feel me?”, or “だからオマエこいつ無しじゃオマエ生きる意味が無えんだよオマエコノヤロー”, or something along those lines, as ethnically appropriate.

SuRuSu: The Greatest Spaced Repetition System of All Times. Stop making that face. How do you get there? It’s simple. Just go to: www.surusu.com

[Insert somewhat humorous introductory phrase]. The KhatzuMoto database shall be undergoing an upgrade commencing at 2300 Japan Standard Time today (April 17). Between this start time and 2259 tomorrow (April 18), i.e. over the next 24 hours, access to KhatzuMemo may be temporarily disabled in order to keep your data safe from corruption, confusion and wickedness during the upgrade process.

Quantus tremor est futurus, quando KhatzuMemo est updaturus! Cuncta stricte adding the following features:

• Linkification: URLs in your QA items are now automatically converted into clickable hyperlinks without any fiddling on your part. No need to use a third-party tool, because the party…is right here: teste David cum Sybilla.
• Other minor UI changes

Your questions, comments and feedback are always big welcome-lah.

Ten thousand huzzahs! KhatzuMemo has been updated! Main changes:

• WARP: The main change is the addition of an experimental feature simply dubbed “WARP”. The idea is to instantly give an item a very long interval. Since KhatzuMemo currently can import question/answer data from a file but not repetition history data, the idea of WARP is to allow you to tell the program that “I already know this item super, super well [from having worked with it on a previous SRS]“, without going through multiple repetitions, freeing time for items that need more of your attention. Use the “WARP” button with great care, since there is no “undo” feature as yet.
• Fixed a minor problem with deletion of a previous user’s cookie when a new user logs in.
• Based on a user request, added a link to the “Search” page from the “Add Item” page to save clicks. Gotta save them clicks.

As always your comments, requests, suggestions and other feedback are more than welcome.

And the update shall be upon its shoulders! And its name, shall be call-ed, wonderful! Update! The migh… OK, never mind. KhatzuMemo has again been updated. Important new features:

• UI: The UI has returned to its very basic roots. However, the default font size has been increased, and there’s also the addition of ample margin space that so many people had requested.
• Stats: There is more statistical information now to help you analyze, manage and direct your learning progress. Mostly I just added median values since those aren’t as prone to skewing as the mean. More representative measures of central tendency: it’s the gift that keeps giving.
• Date Display: This is minor, but…dates are displayed with proper singular/plural units now: “1 month” rather than “1 months”. A part of me couldn’t care less, but one of my CS professors brainwashed me into caring about this sort of thing.
• Extra Reps: KhatzuMemo had the problem that it would offer you extra reps to do whether or not you had any…to do. The problem has now been fixed. Extra reps are now only offered if and when they exist.

And its name shall be call-ed: update! KhatzuMemo has been updated! Here are the main changes/new features:

• A reset password function was added. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can use your username and email to reset it from the login page.
• Changed stats page display to be easier to read, and contain more information
• Shortened and reformatted the information display between reps, for faster reading
• “Do Extra Reps” changed to sets of up to 10 at a time (rather than 5)

Your feedback is, as always, more than welcome. Also, be aware that KhatzuMemo may also be changing names and moving to a shorter, easier-to-enter domain name soon. When that time does come, you may experience a service blip on the order of a few seconds; there’ll be a clear notification beforehand, so there’s no need to worry about it.

Update: there were some security changes, too. As a result, some of your cookies may be invalid, and so you may need to log in again.

Let live forever in the people’s memory the Great Database Upgrade of January!

The server update is complete and KhatzuMemo is now back in action. Enjoy. Let me know if you have any issues…

Users of KhatzuMemo, unite! From each according to his item collection, to each according to his interval!

…Well, that was awkward. Anyway, AJATT’s webhost is upgrading its servers to a newer version of MySQL, so the KhatzuMemo database is going to be down for a short while. It should be back up again well within 24 hours. Until then, go…watch TV or read comics or listen to music or play video games or something .

And all the people rejoiced. Hot on the heels of the previous update is…this update. Major changes:

• Snazzier UI…not that snazzy, but…
• Abbreviated labelling for easier display on small screens
• Improved repetition scheduling — priorities rebalanced to ensure that items imported from large files are not left behind

The Big Cellphone Fix.

Those paying attention may recall that there was a problem whereby many cellphones couldn’t use KhatzuMemo. It turns out they can’t handle automatic page redirects very well (and, of course, they can’t handle JavaScript), so page redirection is now manual. Do you like how I make it their fault? Thanks to Prom for the link to the simulator. If the simulator is to be believed then KhatzuMemo should now be usable on all those cellphones.

In fact, just to be sure, feel free to let me know whether or not this fix works for you by commenting using the same format as before:

If Working: [Provider][Make and model][OK], e.g. “[Softbank][Sharp 904SH][OK]”

If Not Working: [Provider][Make and model][NG][symptoms, e.g. “login page fine, but afterwards blank”]

Looking forward to hearing from you .

It has been a long time. And it was ill-advised of me to leave you devoid of a dope beat to which to step. To which to step.

Doing this to hip hop songs is funny to me…

Anyway, KhatzuMemo has been updated! Including:

• Faster question/answer transition — less data and images displayed on the question and answer screens
• New “View Stats” function — view your item statistics consolidated on their own page
• “Extra Reps” reduced to sets of 5 rather than 50. The idea is that smaller steps are less intimidating and often lead to getting more done
• New “Extra Reps” greeting image
• Streamlined font processing

There are more significant updates on the way, so…yeah. Stay excited.

So, over at LearnJapaneseToday, KhatzuMemo, the world’s favorite SRS, won the dubious honor of a less-than-stellar review. The shame! Frankly, though, what they said was true. Load times were slow and the ad was annoying…I mean, there really shouldn’t be an ad there until you’re getting more value from it.

So, I’ve made some quick updates to KhatzuMemo, namely:

• Removing Ads
• Removing unsupported or only partially supported features. This way, everything option you get is actually supposed to work fully

You should see faster loading times and what not. I’ll reeeeeeally slowly and gradually keep adding features, but, yeah, it’ll be a while.

Anyway, laters .